Start with a story, cook up success, w/Chef Marcus Samuelsson

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1:19One of the dishes that is so dear to me, it's something that I loved growing up, is a dish called saibaji, a spinach and lentil stew that has 10 other vegetables that have been pureed and delicately weaved into the stew. So you get this complex amalgam of flavors. That's Jay Punjabi. He's a co-founder and head of television at Wait What, the company that produces Masters of Scale. The dish he's talking about sounds delicious, but for him, there's a deeper meaning to it than simple comfort food. When my father was just eight years old, he was in a refugee camp in Bombay after the partition of India and Pakistan.

2:04He would go out and seek this dish in the home of people in the refugee camp because it became a thing that connected him to the home that he had left and the world that he was familiar with.

2:24That was just one of the many personal stories Jay heard for the first time thanks to an informal experiment he undertook when visiting family in India. I only get a chance to go once a year for about 10 days. And I was searching for a way to connect deeply with them while we're there. So I came up with this adventure. I identified 21 of our favorite home-cooked meals growing up. Over the course of seven days, we cooked all 21 of them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My parents, my entire family, my brother, everyone was in the kitchen together. It was complete anarchy and chaos. We started to share stories about our lives, and I started to hear things about my family that I'd never heard before.

3:19And it connected me with them in a way in which I could never imagine. And that time ended up becoming sacred.

3:33On returning home to New York, Jay couldn't stop thinking about how sharing those 21 meals with his family had opened a wellspring of unexpected stories. Jay's colleagues at Wait What were also enthralled. So they decided to dedicate an episode of the Wait What podcast meditative story to Jay's project. The episode, titled 21 Meals, struck a chord with thousands of listeners. The response was unbelievable. Countless people sharing how my experience resembled theirs and how the story had opened up a dialogue between them and their family. It was more than just a story. It felt like a movement. When you start to hear from other people about how they're moved, you almost let go of your own ego and you kind of understand that storytelling and connecting with people, it's kind of a service.

4:38as you bring your story to life and you share it it's really no longer your own you're a spark and a catalyst for someone else to bring their own experience to life once you see its impact you start to realize it's not about you it's about what you share and what that opens up for someone else and where they go and where they take it and it continues to ripple out there into the world

5:08we're excited to see where we can take this next

5:15for jay uncovering the stories of his family opened an exciting new area of exploration one that inspired others to delve in their own stories and share them it's a lesson every leader should bear in mind because the best way to invite people into the story of your product is to give them a platform to share their own stories. That's why I believe you need to amplify the unique stories of your community and your customers. Doing so will build a foundation of trust, loyalty, and enduring impact. You've got to have incredible talent at every position. It's like this huge push. There are fires burning when you're going home.

5:55Can you believe it? Such an idiot. And then you go back to, this is totally going to be amazing. There are so many easy ways. I'm supposed to know what to do. I have no idea what to do. Sorry, we made a mistake. But you have to time it right. Oops. Working out of a three-bedroom apartment. Stuff that just seems absolutely nut balls. Ten years later, we're like, well, that's just how you do it. We haven't made it just how you do it.

6:19This is Masters of Scale.

6:27I'm Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, and your host. And I believe you need to amplify the unique stories of your community and your customers. Doing so will build a foundation of trust, loyalty, and enduring impact. Picture a vast library with sections for every genre you can imagine. You can find escapism in the romance and sci-fi sections, points of reflection in memoir and poetry, and guidance in the self-help and business sections. Excited at delving into this wealth of literature and information, you start browsing the shelves. But you quickly realize something's amiss.

7:10Each book you pull from the shelf is written by the same author. What seemed like a monument to the abundance of human knowledge and heart now seems like a garish edifice of self-indulgence. Because even if each of these volumes turns out to be well-written, the library's most compelling promise of a multitude of voices has been dashed. We rightly value learning from different perspectives. Doing so gives us insights and wisdom we can then incorporate into our own stories. It's something we need to keep in mind if we hope to build enduring and impactful businesses. If we embrace a diverse array of stories and create spaces where every individual's narrative is valued, we can cultivate the deep trust needed to build a business that stands the test of time.

8:02Doing this also contributes to building a more inclusive and empathetic society.

8:12I wanted to speak with Marcus Samuelson about this because through his career as a multi-award winning chef and media personality, he has emphasized telling and amplifying the multitude of unique stories that he encounters. Marcus has founded acclaimed restaurants including Red Rooster, Havan Mar, and Metropolis. He is also founder of the Marcus Samuelson Group, which produces media and events celebrating the fusion of food, art, music, and culture. Marcus's own story begins in Ethiopia, where he was born. I was born in a hut in Ethiopia in a tiny village called Abragodena. My sister, my mom, and myself, we got tuberculosis.

8:55Our mother walked us into the capital, which is a two-hour drive, so it's a very long walk. She found a Swedish hospital. She passed away, but my sister and I survived. Through lots of luck, but also some really good people there, we got adopted to Sweden.

9:23For Marcus, this traumatic experience marked a huge shift in his life's narrative, which even included changing his name. I went from being Casa Hunsigay to Marcus Samuelsson, left one of the warmest countries in the world to one of the coldest countries in the world. I traded chickpea puree for herring and potatoes and meatballs. So it was a lot of changes. But I was surrounded with lots of love. A very secure home with two strong parents, an older sister, grandparents. The Samuelson tribe, we were diverse. We knew that we had each other.

10:10One family member in particular was an influence on Marcus. Cooking found me through my grandmother, Helga. She was a master of that. I started to understand the essence of taste just through my grandmother's meatballs We had school lunches and then we had the lunch or dinner I got at home by my parents and then I got the lunch or dinner I got by my grandparents The school lunch you were lucky to find meat in the meatballs but they were perfectly round not that tasty My mom, that was super busy, her meatballs could be one giant patty that we had to cut up ourselves as kids. And then our grandmother's meatballs, they were not perfectly round in shape, but they were lovely.

11:08They were delicious. Very early to understand that things can taste differently based on who makes them. For Marcus, the humble meatball staple of Scandinavian cuisine was an example of how food can be an expression of a multitude of stories. Marcus became passionate about cooking. He found inspiration in the stories of established chefs whose cookbooks gave him a window into the possibilities, not just of cooking, but of himself. Charlie Trotter's first cookbook transformed my life. I was blown away that he wasn't French, he was American, and it opened the door to me that America was possible.

11:57I remember reading Marco Pierre White's first book, White Heat. The fact that he was young and had long hair and smoked. I thought, okay, if he can do all those things, there's got to be room for a black chef. Inspired by these stories, Marcus spent his late teens and early 20s working as an apprentice in restaurants across the world. Japan, in particular, left a deep impression. When I went to Japan the first time and I learned about umame, for example, which is something that I didn't know what it was, but to taste it, feel it, to be around it, I felt like, wow, this is a different world. Marcus kept coming across new flavors, dishes, and approaches to creating food.

12:45So when he returned to Europe to work in France, he was struck by the narrow definition of fine dining that prevailed amongst influential chefs there. I grew up in a time where all the good food was French. And I was like, that doesn't make any sense. There's tons of great food here in Japan, tons of great food in Singapore. How come that doesn't get acknowledged? How come I can't buy a cookbook about this? There's another world out there, and you have to discover it. There was another reason Marcus found his return to Europe difficult. I was speaking to my chef, and he says to me, as a young black chef, you can't ever own a restaurant.

13:25No one's going to support it. And he gave me two examples. Do you know anyone that looks like you that have a restaurant in France? I was like, no, I just don't know a lot of places in France. And then he's like, do you know anyone in Europe? I was like, I haven't been all over Europe. And that was his point to say this is not possible. And I said to him, well, I got to go. I can't lower my dream. I can't lower my ambition. That chef's ludicrously narrow-minded view was rooted in his inability to understand stories that differed from his own. For that chef, being white was a non-negotiable part of the story of any head chef.

14:02This is an extreme example of how being closed off to the diverse stories around you will lead you to overlook talent and opportunity. That head chef's narrow view alienated and drove away Marcus, one of the most promising rising talents on his team. Fortunately, Marcus had faith in his own abilities. All he needed was to find a place that celebrated a diversity of stories. New York City became the place that made sense for me. I just felt like it was my time to start my own thing. In 1994, Marcus applied for a position at a high-end Scandinavian restaurant in Manhattan named Aquavit. First of all, I love New York.

14:46Right away. I love the noise. I love the smell. I love the f*** you from the subway, get out of my way. I have somewhere to stay, which was a massage bed. with my four roommates, and I was loaded. I had$300.

15:05And within a week, I got a job. Despite all the distractions of New York, Marcus kept laser-focused on his work. Once you love where you are and your medium, which I've always loved my medium, it's like a calling. You don't think about how many hours you work. You don't think about how much you give to it. so I could really give myself to food and this opportunity fully. However, shortly after Marcus joined the team at Aquavit, the head chef, Jan Sandel, passed away. Marcus's work ethic and talent had already been noticed by the restaurant owners. So they offered him the role of head chef. He was just 23 years old.

15:51I had support within the ownership group. And they believed in me and they supported me. And I also loved what I was doing. I loved the city. So it was, let's go. Marcus began by radically rethinking how to tell the story of Scandinavian cuisine to his customers. Well, I thought there was a mystique around Scandinavian food at the time that no one had kind of figured out. And I really had the building blocks of new modern Scandinavian food. We have big woods and outdoors. Seafood. We have great clean water. And pickling and preserving. So once I had these blocks down, I felt I could build from anything.

16:34Marcus didn't want to simply tell the story of Scandinavian food. He wanted to infuse his menu with elements of the stories he'd encountered during his international experience and in New York. It paid off. Less than a year after taking over Aquavit, Marcus scored a coveted three-star review from the New York Times. At 23, he was the youngest chef to have received the accolade. So the three stars were great, but one of the best things about being 23 is that, in my case at least, I had no clue what it meant. I just knew that we went from kind of busy on the weekends, not so busy on Monday, Tuesday, to busy all the time.

17:17So now it's just about working hard and having a mission. For the next six years, Marcus grew Aquavit's reputation as one of New York's most exciting dining destinations. But then, on September 11th, 2001, everything changed for the city Marcus now called home. It's still to this day very challenging even to speak about because, you know, I cooked at the World Trade Center the weekend before it happened. And so I knew a lot of the cooks and servers that passed away that morning. It was very difficult. I didn't know what to do. Should I go back to Sweden?

18:00We'll hear what Marcus decided after the break.

18:10Real leaders don't back down when the stakes are high. They innovate, they push forward, and then they take the stage at the Masters of Scale Summit. Join us in San Francisco, October 7th to 9th, to hear from the CEO of the New York Times, scientists using cutting-edge technology to find cures, the leader of crypto powerhouse Coinbase, a retired four-star general, and many, many more. Apply now at mastersofscale.com slash apply25. That's mastersofscale.com slash apply25.

19:10aws.amazon.com slash activate and start building. Expanding your business in the U.S. can feel like a maze. Every state has its own payroll, benefits, and compliance rules, which can pull your focus away from growth. That's why founders use Deal. Deal is the Professional Employer Organization, or PEO, that gives you a dedicated HR expert plus Fortune 500 level benefits for your team. The National Association of PEOs says businesses can grow twice as fast if they use one. So if you're scaling, make it simple with Deal. Go to deel.com slash mos and get up to three months free. We're back with Marcus Samuelson.

20:00To see exclusive clips from my interview with Marcus, head to the Master the Scale YouTube channel. Before the break, we heard how Marcus reached a turning point after the September 11 attacks on New York. Like, it was very difficult. I didn't know what to do. Should I go back to Sweden? But I can't leave because of this, because I just felt like, it's not, you don't, you don't do that. You're like, you can't, no, I just couldn't do that. Marcus knew he was going to stay in New York, but he also knew he needed to change things up. A conversation with his mom gave him focus. So my mom said, you need to change.

20:38Why are your experiences always high-end expensive? Do something in your neighborhood that is more affordable. Aquavit was embracing a diversity of stories to inspire the food it served. But Marcus realized that this diversity was not reflected in the restaurant's customers. This meant there were huge numbers of people who wouldn't even consider stepping through the doors of Aquavit. Marcus came to realize that he wanted to focus on building institutions that reflected the communities around them. Institutions that celebrated and elevated a wide range of stories and lived experiences. So he took the decision to move to a different part of the city, somewhere that would put him in the midst of a thriving hum of vibrant stories.

21:29I moved from Midtown to Harlem, and those 50 blocks was like moving to a different country. And I think my love affair for Harlem really starts there. The move opened Marcus up to thousands of new stories. I noticed right away that everything worked different uptown. The good food was not necessarily in a traditional restaurant. It could be Oyster Mike that pulled up right by the subway station. Or it could be a church lady that handed out cornbread. Or the Jamaican jerk guy that we had to figure out in which park he was in. And it was not a line. But people were in the known. Because there's a line once I got there, so I was clearly just new in the neighborhood.

22:17So it was this kind of more scratchy, but delicious, very community-driven. And that journey and thirst I had to learn about what's going on here. Harlem was an invigorating new environment for Marcus, where individual stories fed into a communal narrative that stretched across generations and continents. I walked in a neighborhood that kind of wrote the story for me if I was just quiet and just observed enough, just as much as I learned brand new things when I came to Asia or when I came to France. And it wasn't something exciting to be at that point, been working for 10, 12 years at a very high level.

23:04But then I have to like, none of that stuff matters. Throw that out. You know, I just, I was a student again, which I really loved. This is one of the most important reasons to make yourself a platform for sharing stories. It primes you to constantly learn new things and take on new perspectives. Someone who is at the nexus of the complex narratives that flow through Harlem is Thelma Golden. She's the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, an institution that plays a pivotal role in the cultural and artistic life of Harlem and the broader art world. She's also been a friend to Marcus since his days at Aquavit.

23:44Delmar recalls how Marcus' passion for Harlem played a part in her decision to join the Studio Museum in 2000 as deputy director for exhibitions. I did not live in Harlem, but my father was born in Harlem in 1926, and he held a love for Harlem in the deepest, most profound way. and Marcus was the exact very same way. He was spending so much time thinking and looking and experiencing Harlem that opened up ideas about Harlem for me that while I knew were in me, quite literally, right, embedded in my DNA, had not activated. When I applied and was offered the job at the Studio Museum, Marcus is one of the first people I spoke to about was this the right moment and he was enthusiastic in his sense of what this possibility could mean.

24:40I, of course, understood it from my curatorial perspective, my art career perspective, just thinking about what the social scientists call placemaking. Placemaking is a collaborative process of creating vibrant, inclusive environments that foster stronger community ties and enhance the overall quality of life. The Studio Museum has been at the heart of placemaking in Harlem since its founding in 1968. The Studio Museum was founded in the cauldron of the civil rights movement, the Black Power movement. And at that time, there was a sort of clarion call for the ways in which arts and culture played into an understanding of the liberation of Black people.

25:24And so the founders of the Studio Museum were an incredibly diverse group that came together, all with the distinct idea that Harlem deserved an institution devoted to the presentation of visual art by Black people. But they also wanted, in creating a museum at that point in the late 60s, to project into a future. So it was a very bold task. It was one that was, on the one hand, holding to legacy, but it also was incredibly radical in its sense of future making. Exhibitions such as the museum's Harlem Renaissance exhibition defined an art history. And of course, all through that moment, the museum mounted exhibitions of African-American artists of significance.